Inspections of Birmingham schools found no evidence of extremism

A “Trojan Horse” saga has dominated our air waves for some time causing charged debates on the issue of “British values”. However, the report on schools suspected of being part of the plot was finally published on June 9 by Ofsted. To the relief of many, especially the Muslim community, the Ofsted report said that there was no evidence of extremism nor of extremists trying to take over schools. However, Ofsted Chief, Sir Michael Wilshaw, claimed that there is a climate of fear and intimidation in some of these schools.

Of the 21 Birmingham schools inspected by the Ofsted, five were judged inadequate and consequently will be placed on special measures. This means the governing bodies of these schools will be replaced and senior leadership team may also lose their jobs. The schools that were deemed inadequate are Park View, Golden Hillock, Saltley School, Oldknow School and Nansen Primary Academy. The latter two are primary schools. Of these schools, three had been previously deemed “good” or “outstanding” whilst the other two had not been inspected previously.

The key issues highlighted in the inspection reports, include concerns relating to recruitment policies, segregation in some curricular areas, weaknesses in safeguarding policies, the power and influence exercised by some governors in some schools and how in some cases, a minority of governors seek to assert their version of religious views and practices to alter the “ethos” and “character” of the schools.

The reports also found strengths in these schools, which had been left unreported in the media storm. In most of these schools, the level of achievement and teaching were deemed as good or better. Students were judges as being generally well mannered, proud of their schools and aware of issues around bullying. Reports also found that managing behaviour and support to improve achievement were good or better.

Responding to the reports Shabana Mahmood MP who attended one of the 21 schools and represents constituents attending some of the schools, said, “What these reports do not prove is the central charge being levelled which was that there was an organised effort to import extremism and thereby radicalise pupils within the state system.”

Mahmood correctly reflected the feelings of most Muslims across the country and particularly the parents with children in those schools when she stated, “…problems with governance are not the same as evidence of radicalisation and I am deeply concerned that the focus of the debate over the last few weeks has conflated these two things. As a result of this, the Muslim community in Birmingham and beyond has come under intense scrutiny, which has left people justifiably feeling under siege, demonised and isolated. Muslim parents are in despair that the education of their children is being viewed through the prism of national security.”

In fact, anyone who carefully reads the report will be baffled by decision to judge the five schools inadequate. Ofsted judges schools against four broad criteria: the achievement of pupils, quality of teaching, safety and behaviour and the leadership and management. It seems that the primary concern had been around the lack of provision these schools offered to children to prepare them against threat of extremism and that the schools failed to provide opportunities to learn about other faiths and cultures, which has been critical to the decision to place these schools to special measure.
By the Inspectors’ own admissions, children in these schools demonstrate maturity, behave well, confident and are proud of their school. Inspectors also praised teachers and leadership team for the arrangement and support mechanisms they have created to facilitate improvement. These schools, some of which had failed or achieved single pass rates only a decade ago, are now some of the highest achieving schools.

This raises the question as to whether Ofsted’s judging of these schools as inadequate is fair, proportionate and just. Ofsted has since been accused of playing politics and falling for an agenda driven by Education Secretary, Michel Gove.

Writing in the Guardian, Sir Tim Brighouse, former Director of Education at the Birmingham City Council and later London Commissioner for Education, had harsh words to say about the whole affairs and particularly the Ofsted and the Education Secretary. It is worth noting, that Sir Brighouse had been credited to be the architect behind the major improvement in the achievement of pupils in inner-city Birmingham. Furthermore, he has actively promoted and supported the efforts by governors to encourage participation of parents from the inner-city community in Birmingham. Some of these governors now find themselves at the centre of the storm and singled out for criticism by a section of the media.

Sir Brighouse noted, “The role and power of the Education Secretary needs to be reduced and his relationship with Ofsted clarified – neither can be trusted to act efficiently or fairly.” Concerning the issue of faith and its role in schools, he argues that Ofsted report’s central theme appeared to have been there were too much emphasis on a brand of Islam. Brighouse said: “Recently I watched a presentation at a Catholic secondary school staff training day of its faith mission. As I mentally substituted “Muslim” for “Catholic” and “Allah” for “God” with each slide that appeared on the screen, I had little doubt about what a furore such an amended set of slides would cause in our Islamophobic society. Would inspectors ask whether the children in Catholic schools are being prepared suitably for life in modern Britain?”

Concerning the adverse impact of these Ofsted reports and looking at way forward, Brighouse said: “Incalculable damage has been inflicted on the Birmingham schools caught up in this affair and to their pupils and parents. There are already acute staff shortages which will get worse. The way the affair has been handled is entirely down to Gove and Ofsted. They should provide extra resources and staff to mitigate the damage to the children and community in Birmingham. As they pick up the pieces they will probably never forget what’s been done to them. One hopes they can bring themselves in time to forgive. They will be more likely to do so if they are given some help, in recompense for the injustices they are suffering. What the proud city of Birmingham needs least is to be treated as a colonial outpost of London.”

Professor Brighouse is not alone in expressing these concerns. A letter, published in the Guardian, has been signed by leading voices from education, civil society and the Muslim community and offers scathing condemnation for the way the matter has been dealt with by the Ofsted. “Inspectors were poorly prepared and had an agenda that calls into question Ofsted’s claim to be objective and professional in its appraisal of standards in schools serving predominantly Muslim pupils,” it says.
In a statement, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) observed: “Over the last few months, the Muslim community has been subjected to ridiculous accusations of extremism. But there is scant evidence that the education system or the Muslim community are the reasons for why people turn to terrorism.”
The MCB statement also questioned the fairness of the Ofsted inspection, particularly in relation to criteria applied to these schools and raised concern in relation to its conflating extremism with religious conservatism.

It is worth remembering that the whole episode was triggered by a letter now infamously known as “Trojan Horse”, widely accepted to be a fake. Many are asking who in fact wrote the letter and demand that effort it made to investigate to unearth creator of the letter and the motives behind it. This is key to addressing the mistrust, suspicion and loss of faith parents and the community in Birmingham now feel towards the Education Secretary, Ofsted and the wider establishment.

One Response to “Inspections of Birmingham schools found no evidence of extremism”

Children in Birmingham face having their lives blighted and their futures harmed by the Trojan horse allegations aimed at their schools, the Labour MP Shabana Mahmood told a packed public meeting in the city on Thursday night. Pupils attending the schools that were investigated for signs of Islamist extremism are likely to face difficulties applying to universities and colleges because of the notoriety, the MP for Birmingham Ladywood said at the launch event for the Putting Birmingham School Kids First group held in Camp Hill. “There will always be children in Birmingham living with that stigma, day in and day out,” Mahmood told the first mass meeting organised in reaction to reports that schools and their boards of governors had been infiltrated by Islamist extremists.

Investigations by Ofsted and the Department for Education targeted five schools in the inner city with largely Muslim pupils, placing them in special measures. Four of the schools are academies and are likely to be handed over to new management by the Department for Education early next month.

A further investigation is being carried out by Peter Clarke, the former head of counter-terrorism with the Metropolitan police. “I really felt depressed and in despair, that it couldn’t be right to talk about the education of children, really young children, through the prism of national security,” Mahmood said, noting that the investigations so far revealed no evidence of extremism. “Any conversation about Trojan horse has to start with the proposition that kids in Birmingham were being radicalised but which is simply not true and should be rejected,” Mahmood said.

A parent from Oldknow academy, a primary school that was one of the five placed in special measures, said children at the school had already suffered bullying as a result of the controversy, with one child told the school was “where you learn how to make bombs”. “These children have had their childhood memories taken away from them,” she said.

Sir Tim Brighouse, a former head of education in Birmingham, addressed the meeting by video, telling it that Birmingham was a city of immigrants who made themselves “into Brummies'”. “What you’ve achieved in schools in east Birmingham over the last 10 or 15 years is nothing short of extraordinary,” Brighouse said. “What’s happened then is a wholly inappropriate response, tragically timed, from agencies in London. The problem with people in London, they think they have the answers to all problems, throughout the country.”

There was a surprise intervention by the Daily Telegraph’s political commentator Peter Osborne, who addressed the mixed audience of 500. “I think it is unacceptable that there are things that can be said publicly about Muslims which can be said about no other communities and religions, and there is something sick about that and it is something that does need to be fought,” Osborne said to loud applause.

The investigations were sparked by an anonymous letter – now regarded as a fabrication – describing a plot to subvert schools in the city by extremists. “It’s a lie, as simple as that,” Barry Henley, a Birmingham city councillor, said of the Trojan horse letter. Henley said the media had described him as an “Islamic fanatic” for his role on the council in approving local schools’ religious curriculum, even though he was Jewish and a governor of a Jewish faith school. Azhar Qayyum, of the Muslim Association of Britain, told the meeting: “What other religion in Britain would be subjected to this, on the basis of a flimsy piece of paper?” Helen Salmon, whose five-year-old son, Ben, was at the meeting and was one of only two white children in a year-one entry of 120 pupils, said the allegations were “absolute nonsense”. The amount of crap that has been put into these allegations hasn’t just affected current pupils in these alleged schools, but the ex students like me and the rest of them from these schools who are applying for Colleges and Universities… As soon as they see the name of the school, it already creates a negative image in their minds. A bunch of crap from Michael Gove and the rest of the idiots, Thanks for all of this…

“We can’t trust a word Ofsted say when they are so politically motivated,” she said. Ofsted is very politically motivated. Whatever went on at these schools no evidence was found of radicalism or extremism. There is evidence of some bad decision making but why is it that so many investigations are needed. What happens to the education of the children involved, the stress for them must be incredibly high. So much media attention and so much instability as to the future direction and leadership of their schools.All schools need to prepare all children for the reality of Britain, where are the attempts at integration and religious or racial understanding from ‘White British’ dominated schools and communities, why are they not being failed and accused of insularity? When I attended a white dominated secondary school and taught at some there was so much racism to contend with for the few Asian children, and it’s not changed. These schools still have issues as do so many others. When is that going to be tackled by Ofsted and Gove? Time to leave Birmingham schools alone and let the children get on with their lives. Institutional racism at its worst. Ofsted and the government should hang their heads in shame for the divisive damage they have done to race relations in the name of not losing face politically.
The innocent children have been used as pawns…Ofsted has lost its political neutrality….and Islam, a religion of peace to true believers, has been scapegoated. No wonder we have race related violence against Muslims when you feed hatred and prejudice. I would say to those involved….grow up and be the mature adults you purport to be.

2 white children in a 120 year 1 entry. That is extreme in its self! Not extreme- disappointing. BAME (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic) population is not responsible for the phenomenon of ‘White Flight’. BAME people move into an area and White British get the estate agents in and move to another area. What of the schools where you might have no BAME children? Isn’t that ‘extreme’? One of the main things that has been used to support the presentation of dangerous/risky “extremism” is that girls and boys were sitting separately. i went to a secular girls’ school with a secular boys’ school across a small playing field, and we were not allowed to meet – was that extremism? No. To claim that it is – that is blatantly revisionist. Seating girls and boys separately is known to be good for their education, so long as the gender binary stands, it’s not a religious extreme, it’s not even unusual in mixed schools, and as here it is often the children’s’ decision. Nor is requesting modest attire from staff unusual or extreme. These faculties, their students, and the parents of those students, are being massively disrespected – robbed of all agency and subjectivity. This is known as Othering. Who stands to profit from the demonisation and the scheduled transfer of power?
IA
London School of Islamics Trust

The Muslim News Awards for Excellence 2015 was held on March in London to acknowledge British Muslim and non-Muslim contributions to the society.

The Muslim News Awards for Excellence 2015 was held on March in London to acknowledge British Muslim and non-Muslim contributions to the society.

The Muslim News Awards for Excellence event is to acknowledge British Muslim and non-Muslim contributions to society. Over 850 people from diverse background, Muslim and non-Muslim, attended the gala dinner.